Welcome to Contrapunctus Press

Thank you for visiting this website and investigating my editions. The primary goal of Contrapunctus Press is to produce scholarly and beautiful keyboard scores of music written by J. S. Bach, and to distribute them for free, encouraging access to education for everyone.

These are entirely new scores edited and engraved by me, based on the original manuscripts and first editions using modern typesetting conventions, but free from other editorial changes. Also absent from my scores are performing suggestions or directions. The lone exception is my performance score of The Art of Fugue, as it contains hand assignments and fingering. I should mention that the appellation 'keyboard score' I use is meant to refer to a wide array of instruments such as the harpsichord, clavichord, virginal, fortepiano, pianoforte (modern piano), and other such instruments, but certainly you can use the scores however you wish.

It is my hope that musicians, academics, and students will treat my scores as a reference. More specifically: as just one reference. Other publishers, other editors, and the source material itself should all be consulted in combination with my scores.

The term 'urtext' could be applied to my editions, but I feel this might incorrectly imply that no editing has occurred. Despite the stated goal of presenting the composer’s original intentions free from an editor’s interference, it is occasionally necessary to make decisions when the composer’s wishes are not entirely clear. This could be because the notation in a manuscript is unclear, or a scribe has made an error, or other possibilities that may have unknowable answers. I study every available manuscript and original edition and try to make the best decisions based on evidence, context, and my general knowledge of the composer.

Editing also takes the form of modernizing music notation for older music to align with current traditions. Stem directions, beam connections, rest placement, voice leading, clef changes, and accidentals are just a few examples of notation that have been modernised. Accidentals especially do not have the same permanence in Bach’s originals as they do in current editions of his music. I follow the traditions of notation that were solidified in the 19th century and are now standard for this type of music. Again, I try my best to not affect the music in any way while still presenting a score that will be understandable to keyboard players of today, ensuring a musical text that can be read with speed and ease.

To digitally create beautiful, easily readable scores that emulate the best qualities of hand-engraved music, I have used both LilyPond and Dorico. LilyPond utilises plain text code representing the notes entered into a text editor, while Dorico uses a visual and graphical interface.

Working from public domain sources such as original manuscripts and first editions, the notes and basic elements are entered, and the input is then highly modified to achieve the desired visual output. Once the general layout of pages and measures is acceptable, every element is inspected and adjustments are made as needed: spacing between notes and staves, positioning of articulations and ornaments, individual micro-shifting of tie curves, and so on. Every measure is unique and the work requires an adaptable plan that maintains consistency through optical spacing, beam sloping, voice placement, and many other considerations. The final result is intended to be easy to read, accurate, and aesthetically pleasing. I enjoy creating scores that have artistic value in their engraving details, and I hope to showcase that quality.

The scores I create are of compositions that I know very well. I feel it is necessary to have studied, performed, taught, and generally lived with a piece for many years before making a new edition. Understanding the music intimately allows for the best possible editorial and aesthetic choices. As I am a specialist in the music of J. S. Bach, both as a performer and analyst, most of my scores will be of his music. Other composers who might feature in the future are Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Scriabin.

From the main page of this website, clicking or tapping on any of the book covers will open the score in an appealing visual representation of a physical book. You will find various options for moving through the book, a clickable table of contents, links for sharing, and more. Perhaps the most important option is the download PDF button, which will enable you to use your own preferred score reader or application to study, practice, print, and to make your own annotations. The PDF will be the best option in terms of visual quality if you intend to study the piece at length.

In keeping my scores accessible to all, I also make my scores available on IMSLP, which is a fantastic and legal source for music. I release them using Creative Commons licences (specifically CC-BY-SA 4.0) and follow the guidelines of Free Cultural Works. The copyright remains with me, but you are given the right to download, share, copy, among other things, but with some mild restrictions, such as the need for attribution of the original source, and to use a similar licence when sharing or making copies. I will update my scores if necessary, and the most current version can be found both on IMSLP and here on this website.

If you are interested in supporting Contrapunctus Press, I would appreciate you sharing these scores with other people. As making these scores requires significant time and effort, and I am determined to keep releasing them for free, I have set up a donation page. You can optionally support my work by donation if you have found these scores to be useful.

Thank you for reading this explanation about Contrapunctus Press. If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch with me using the form below.

Best regards,
Dr. Dominic Florence
DMA, MMus, BMus, ARCT